A Rada-trained, Yorkshire-born actor already known for his intense stage performances. It's more of the same in his first film lead. He plays the notorious Appalachian mountain-dancer Jesco White in White Lightnin', which is coming to the Edinburgh film festival.

Standard biopic stuff, then?

Not by a long shot. It spins off into an ultra-stylised hellfire revenge fantasy. We hid behind our hands when the meat cleaver came out, but kept listening; Yeah Yeah Yeahs guitarist Nick Zinner composed the score, and there are tracks by psychobilly one-man-band Hasil Adkins.

And what about Hogg, does he cut it?

Most definitely. This is star-making stuff. The video-nasty violence and studious white-trash stereotyping (Vice magazine's film division is a co-funder of the movie) split critics at Sundance. But it lays a stall out for Hogg's talents. He's spot on with White's mannerisms (he's a glue-sniffing, hillbilly David Brent). "He's crazy as hell, but you fall in love with him straight away," says Hogg.

What's next?

The more sedate Bunny and the Bull, a sofa-bound road movie by the Mighty Boosh's Paul King. Hogg plays an agoraphobic who goes on a trip around Europe without leaving his flat.